Hoover school board approves calendars for 2018-19, 2019-20

The Hoover Board of Education approved calendars for the 2018-19 and 2019-20 school years that include a full week off for Thanksgiving and two weeks off for the Christmas and New Year’s Day holidays.

Superintendent Kathy Murphy said a committee of both faculty and parents recommended the calendar. Each school was invited to have a representative on the committee, she said.

School officials also sought input from faculty, parents and students through an online survey. People were asked to choose between three calendar options offered for each school year. Two of the options for each year would have given students a full week out of school for Thanksgiving, while a third would have given them Wednesday through Friday off. There were also slightly different choices for the first day of school, winter break and teachers’ professional development days.

“There isn’t a perfect calendar. We own that,” Murphy said. “We have our constituents who want a week off for Thanksgiving and others who do not want a week off for Thanksgiving. We have those who want more time at Christmas … It is just impossible to draft a calendar that’s going to meet the satisfaction of all.”

School board member Deanna Bamman said she has served on the calendar committee before and said a lot more thought goes into it than mostpeople realize.

Parents frequently complain about school starting so early in August, but Bamman said they are limited on when school can start if people want the full week off at Thanksgiving. The state requires a certain number of instructional days, so the school year must begin in early August in order to end the first semester before the winter break, she said.